More

Obama: We Should Rename ‘Buffett Rule’ To ‘Reagan Rule’

U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement about the "Buffett Rule" in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building April 11, 2012 in Washington, DC. Named after the billionare invester Warren Buffet, the "Buffet Rule" would ensure that the wealthiest Americans pay at least 30 percent of their income in federal taxes and is a centerpiece to Obama's re-election campaing. *** Local Caption *** Barack Obama

President Barack Obama makes a statement about the "Buffett rule" in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 11, 2012 in Washington, D.C. (credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

As the Senate prepares to vote on the rule next week that would call for Americans making at least $1 million to pay a 30 percent income tax, Obama said Wednesday that they should rename it the “Reagan rule” due to the former president’s concept of the fair share plan.

“Some years ago, one of my predecessors traveled across the country pushing for the same concept,” Obama said at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, according to CBS News. “This president gave another speech where he said it was ‘crazy’ — that’s a quote — that certain tax loopholes make it possible for multi-millionaires to pay nothing while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary. That wild-eyed socialist, tax-hiking, class warrior was Ronald Reagan.”

Obama added that they could call it the “Reagan rule” if it will help Republicans in Congress to back the measure.

“(Reagan) thought that in America the wealthiest should pay there fair share and he said so,” Obama said. “But what Ronald Reagan was calling for then is the same thing we are calling for now – a return to basic fairness and responsibility.”

“The right course for America is not to divide America,” Romney told a GOP dinner gathering in Mendenhall, near Philadelphia, on Tuesday. “That’s what he’s doing,” he said of Obama. “His campaign is all about finding Americans to blame and attack, and find someone to tax more, someone who isn’t giving, isn’t paying their fair share.”

“I understand the polls, I can read a poll just like Barack Obama can,” Rubio told CBS Miami. “I understand that people look at it and say, ‘Yeah, how come Warren Buffett pays less than his secretary?’ What they need to understand is the reason why he may pay less than his secretary is that she makes her money on a paycheck and he makes his money on investments. We have always wanted Warren Buffett to instead of putting that money in a coffee can, to take his money and invest it because that created jobs.”